Checkers as cop cars?

In our recent post on Checker dealerships, frequent commenter Errcoman informed us that Checker offered its cars in police trim as well as taxi trim. Reader Gene Herman also sent us a scan of a 1964 or 1965 Checker brochure that offered a police package Checker. Though, as with most other Checker products, one could order a Checker cop car pretty much any way one wanted. To confirm this, we went to John Weinhoeft, who pointed us to a few recent articles in the Checkerboard News about Checkers as cop cars, as well as the above photo of Checker collector Ben Merkel’s Checker cop car, which originally patrolled Key West, Florida.

In the newsletter articles, Ben mentioned several other police departments he knew of that ordered Checkers for patrol duty, including Terrell, Texas; Mackinaw City, Michigan; Tallmadge, Ohio; Chelsea, Massachusetts; Medford, Massachusetts; Exeter, New Hampshire; and Coburn, Virginia. In addition, he found out that Upjohn Pharmaceutical and Timken Bearing had both ordered police package Checkers as security patrol cars. And apparently the police package remained available all the way through the end of Checker production in 1982.

Know of any other police departments that once used Checkers? Let us know in the comments.

Hugo90says:

July 21, 2009 7:48 pm

Joe Faysays:

August 28, 2009 3:21 pm

I know Lynn, Mass. used Checker squads. When I picked up my marriage license in 1985, I remember seeing a Burlington, Mass. auxiliary police Checker parked out in front of city hall. New York City used Checkers as unmarked cars. Essentially they were set up as standard NYC taxicabs equipped with Chevy 350’s, one survives and is located in South Africa